UCLA basketball is set up for a very smooth month of November

November should treat the UCLA Bruins well. The month, and the season, began with a terrific win over No. 5 Arizona where UCLA were able to play their style of game against one of the top teams in the country. Now things will get easier for the Bruins.

For the rest of the month, UCLA will face six nonconference opponents and won’t have to leave Southern California. The Bruins will play their next five games at Pauley Pavilion before heading down to San Diego to play Saint Mary’s.

UCLA isn’t facing a Murderer’s Row either, as they’re set to face North Florida, AR-Pine Bluff, Long Beach State, Cal Fullerton, Delaware and then Saint Mary’s. The Bruins will hope that they got a month’s-worth of urgency out of the opener and will be able to spend the rest of November tinkering with lineups so that they can hit Big Ten Conference play running.

Conference play will begin December 1st against Oregon but will then face No. 15 Gonzaga days later. As it sits now, UCLA’s first Big Ten game against a ranked opponent won’t occur until 2027 when the team hosts Michigan State.

The soft November slate should allow for UCLA’s freshmen, Nikola Kusturica and Joe Philon III, to get plenty of reps, which will give us all a better idea of what level they’ll have at the NCAA level.

It’ll be hard to top the win over Arizona but a 7-0 is well within reach for Mick Cronin’s team thanks to the 84-75 win earlier this week.

This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: UCLA basketball is set up for a very smooth month of November